260 Agbioultitral Experiment Station, Ithaca, N. Y. 



fruit well mulched as late as the season will permit. For years the 

 south has furnished us early berries, some seasons by first of February, 

 and I make no attempt to supply early fruit for this market. The 

 retarding is not quite so marked by heavy mulching other small fruits, 

 but it makes a difference of a few days, say three or four days, in the 

 ripening of raspberries and blackberries. Tliere is still less effect in 

 mulching orchards, but some retarding is perceptible. This heavy 

 mulching of strawberries, which is absolutely essential in this severe 

 climate, consists of marsh hay put on so as to hide the plants com- 

 pletely. In a warm spell, which sometimes comes in April or early in 

 May, it must be stirred or the plants will suffer. Such a spell of 

 weather here is sure to be followed by intense cold, and removal of the 



mulching would seriously damage the plants. 



B. F. Adams. 



J. S. Stickney, Wauwatosa, Wis., does not approve of it. 



I have tried mulching to retard growth of strawberries, but not with 

 satisfactory results. The trouble is that the foilage insists upon grow- 

 ing under the mulch, and suffers seriously when the mulch is removed, 

 so that the very slight gain in time is more than balanced by loss of 

 vigor. My neighbor, Mr. William von Baumbach, the most success- 

 ful grower I ever knew, removes his winter covering and cultivates 

 thoroughly, not deep, then mulches heavily between the rows, but 



makes no effort to hold back the time of starting. 



J. S. Sticknby. 



I. N, Stone, Sioux City, Iowa, favoring mulching to delay fruit. 



I have noticed in different seasons a variation of from five to eight 

 days' later bloom and ripening of fruit where the strawberry bed is 

 mulched as heavily as it is safe to mulch and avoid smothering the 

 plants, that when little or no mulching is used, or when the mulch is 

 all taken off early in the spring and replaced just before ripening. 

 Still there have been years when there was not much difference in the 

 opening of the ripening season on account of a late frost destroying §,11 

 of the first blossoms of both the mulched and unmulched areas. The 

 bloom on the mulched plants would not be as far advanced as on the 

 unmulched, but it would be affected more by the frost on account of 

 the mulch preventing the radiation of heat from the loose soil. So 

 if a frost hard enough to kill the bloom should come at a time 

 when both the mulched and the unmulched are in bloom, there would 

 be but little if any difference in the time of first ripening of fruit, 

 but the mulched would hold out a few days later than those 



